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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243684">The Work of Nightmares</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigercry/pseuds/tigercry'>tigercry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sword Art Online (Anime &amp; Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Minor Original Character(s), Not Really Character Death, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Wrote back in 2019, part of Little Moments</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:29:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,414</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243684</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigercry/pseuds/tigercry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>ALO's hacked, and Kirito and Asuna suffer the strange consequences.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Deadly Hacker, MortemKur</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is an old piece, but I need to fill in my stuff here at Archive so here it is XD</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Deadly Hacker, MortemKur</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>AU It's an AU!</em>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>(ALO, SAO, IRL)</strong>
</p>
<p>"Noo!" The yell tore from Kirito's mouth in a wail of fear and he struggled to finish off the enemies he was fighting. "Asuna!"</p>
<p>Asuna stumbled backward, the beautiful Undine's face had adopted an astonished expression and she looked surprised to see the knife currently in her abdomen up to the hilt. The color in her face drained as she coughed and her knees buckled, her assailant knelt as she fell, so Asuna's head rested awkwardly on his shoulder. Red bubbled at Asuna's lips, looking incredibly realistic for a hack and making ALO seem suddenly much darker.</p>
<p>"Asuna!" Kirito slashed through yet another player who could revive and roared in fury at the enemy pushing him back, away from Asuna when here they couldn't respawn. The blood on Asuna's lips was real, in the real world she was losing blood, <em>real blood,</em> and he couldn't do anything but struggle to try and reach her. Kuradeel had gotten his revenge, with this massive hack that mixed GGO and SAO all together, corrupting the world of ALO and targeting SAO survivors.</p>
<p>"Mommy! Yui howled, the little girl was lying sprawled on the ground in a small nook in the back of the cave they were fighting in, and Kirito saw Asuna's magic, the concealing magic protecting Yui, flicker and waver. Asuna wasn't going to last much longer, and when she disappeared Yui's protective magic barrier would fail.</p>
<p>But Kirito caught sight of and heard Asuna forcing out ALO spell words in a croaking voice. <em><strong>(I apologize now for butchering this but I tried six different Old Norse translator and this is what I managed to create with English grammar rules. Old Norse is one of the few common ancient languages I can't read in or speak.)</strong></em>, " Sū brjóta snarp-liga," the rather familiar cylinder of spell words appeared around Asuna's body, words sluggishly moving around her like they were affected by Asuna's weakening consciousness. "frān iord-rīke," Asuna forced the words through her bloodied lips, the chosen words appearing in front of her and her assailant. Asuna's voice was barely audible to Kirito's ears even with his high listening skill, and it was a croaking whisper, "Overja ok hylja sjá," Asuna coughed and her magic faltered, but even as blood from the hack dripped down onto the ground from her wound in abdomen, Asuna continued. "kind þótt æpte Ekku skaði…" The spell finished and an invisible ripple went through the cave, temporarily stunning everyone in shock and Yui's wavering barrier turned solid, preventing other players from even getting close to her. <em><strong>|Sū (spell directed toward Yui, a player) pull energy from this world to protect and conceal this child even after Ekku (the spell caster, my) death.</strong></em></p>
<p><em>Do not fear, child,</em> Yui heard a faint whisper through her ears as she trembled with fear, now unable to see what was going on in the fight. <em>You are protected...</em></p>
<p>"Someone get to Asuna!" Kirito pleaded with his friends, half of them were in the real world connected by audio via Yui and half of them were here helping him. They all were running around, either in battle or racing against the clock to save as many of the other SAO players as possible. "Asuna can't die!"</p>
<p>"We're trying Kirito!" Klien and Sinon's voices were frankly pissed off and stressed, they were in the real world, and by the sound of it, they were trying to knock down a door. "The door's locked and the hospital staff are responding to another emergency!"</p>
<p>"Open up you damn door!" Klein swore and Kirito heard him ram the door again, "nobody's taking my brother's future wife!"</p>
<p>A pink haired leprechaun jumped in front of Kirito and used a sword skill on her mace to send fifteen enemies flying before they turned into remainder lights. "Go to her!" Liz shouted, the pink haired SAO survivor was cut up and injured but wasn't seriously hurt like Asuna was. "She needs you!"</p>
<p>Kirito didn't have to be told twice and started charging through the enemy ranks to reach Asuna, "Asuna!" He yelled her name, "just hold on!" He knew deep in his heart they weren't going to make it. Asuna's eyes were already dulling, blood was getting all over the ground and her clothes, she was coughing up blood from being stabbed in the real world, and yet she was still casting spells.</p>
<p>"Ōsu Þeír fylla gullin öl," Asuna spluttered as the Undine's chest heaved for air, struggling to breathe in the real and virtual worlds, "helgask allr eitrið, rísa folk." Her voice shook and her head drooped, almost losing hold of her magic and staying in the virtual world. "Gefa þeir þroski ok skjót-fœr fara fram áðr hríð endi ok una standa fólcvíg annarr dœgr!" With that Asuna's attacker sprang away and vanished, Kirito fell to his knees next to Asuna, and the Undine fell, her blue eyes struggling to stay open. <em><strong>|Ōsu (casting a spell over the groups of allied parties) "Heal them, golden ale, cleanse all toxins, and have them stand to the line of battle once more." ( " " is a standard Undine Healing Spell) Give them strength and speed to continue on till the battle's end and live to stand in battle another day!|</strong></em></p>
<p>"Asuna!" Kirito cradled her in his arms, staring in horror at what had happened to her. It was like SAO all over again, but this time Asuna was targeted instead of him. "Asuna!" He lightly shook her when her eyes closed, "stay awake! Sinon! Klein! We don't have much time!" Asuna's lips were stained red with the blood from the hack, simulating what she looked like right now in the real world, having been stabbed there at the same time. Asuna's boots were becoming transparent, the soles of her shoes were becoming a faint transparent blue, a color that would match her remaining light if she were able to respawn. "Asuna!"</p>
<p>"Klein move!" Sinon snapped and Kirito heard a gunshot, likely Sinon managing to use a pistol to shoot the lock.</p>
<p>Asuna was clearly drained, the magic had taken it's toll on her already weakened mind and body, and while everyone else in their group of allied parties was enveloped in a watery glow that meant they were all fully healed and restored, Asuna's ALO blue eyes slipped closed.</p>
<p>Kirito's yells of her name turned into broken wails of grief as Asuna's head limply turned toward him and her character shimmered and vanished with a slow-burning blue flame. Leaving behind nothing but a tiny flickering blue flame Kirito now held in his hands. "Asuna!" He yelled and held the in-game item close to him with a broken sob, "Asuna!"</p>
<p>The tiny flame flickered in Kirito's hands, an in-game object named, "Asuna's Heart." <em>Kirito...</em></p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>A/N:I want to end it here soooo badly! It's such the perfect cliffhanger it's freaking amazing! But then again Asuna's dead (Supposedly? I think so? Yeah, she's gone) and I shouldn't leave it like this, it's too heartbreaking! But it'll ruin the suspense of the story if I don't… Blegh! Too many choices! Ooh, here we go...</strong>
  </em>
</p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>I couldn't see anything, or hear anything either. Even my harsh breathing was inaudible to me now. What happened to me? Where was I? And why did none of my senses work? I felt like I was floating, floating in something I was tempted to say was similar to water but couldn't tell for sure. This… this must be my life now I guess… A place where none of my senses worked and I felt like I was submerged in water. My body didn't respond when I tried to move my fingers, I couldn't even feel most of my body anymore, it seemed to be fading, another sense slowly trickling through my fingers. I was fighting... Fighting with my friends, and then this happened.</p>
<p>Suddenly I felt my lungs squeeze like I was suffocating, and felt what felt like grass beneath my bare feet as I landed with a rather soft thump. My knees buckled and I dropped onto the ground onto my hands and knees rubbing my neck and trying to make the choking dissipate. It wasn't until a few moments later when I managed to take in a deep breath and slowly release it, beyond thankful that I wasn't choking anymore. However, my eyes flickered open and I stared at what was around me. Or more like what was under me. I was standing on a mostly transparent area, but that wasn't what was surprising to me. The massive world of ALheim was directly below my feet, thousands upon thousands of feet away. My breath hitched, what now? Why was I here in another VR world?</p>
<p>"Excuse me?" A rather suspicious voice spoke softly and I whirled around to stare wide-eyed at a curly haired girl who looked to be in her late teens with thin glasses rimming her deep brown eyes. "But I have to ask what you're doing here."</p>
<p>"Here? What and where was here exactly?"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Hidden Locations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this before Argo's IRL name was released, all of my stories have that name.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kirito threw down his pencil and practically screamed in frustration before he put his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his desk. His eyes were squeezed shut, his face screwed up with tears and anguish, and he breathed hard, working to regain control.</p><p>The door creaked open and Sugu poked her head quietly into her older brother's room, cautiously looking at him. "Kazuto?" She said in something close to a whisper. "I heard your yell…" Her dark blue gaze swept around the room and she frowned, eyebrows pinching together in worry.</p><p>Klein, Sinon, and Argo were all in the room too, the two girls were asleep. Argo was hunched over a portable table, her face resting on her keyboard with it still pressing down keys, and her brown hair was a mess. Sinon was sitting on Kirito's bed surrounded by printed photos with her head currently leaning against the wall, mouth slightly open as she breathed. Klein was scowling furiously as he forced himself to continue reading whatever he was reading on Kirito's computer sitting next to him, unfazed by Kirito's howl.</p><p>The three had been helping Kirito since Asuna's death, working with him to find out how someone hacked the game, why they left, and why Asuna had been the target. Sugu hadn't even seen Argo leave the house, the two ex. Beta testers had been pushing their computer skills to the limit, hacking and cracking everything they could to find out how to stop the hack. Sugu also knew that Sinon and Klein felt responsible, unable to get to Asuna before the beautiful girl had stopped breathing.</p><p>It wasn't fair for all of them, Sugu reflected as she quietly entered the room and went toward Sinon first to gather up the photos. SAO, Sugo, GGO, and now ALO and the real world were broken apart. Asuna was gone, Kirito was falling apart at the seams, Yui had retreated into Kirito's computer and hadn't been seen in ALO since… the incident. It hurt too much to give it a good name. Sugu had been with Agil IRL when she had heard Kirito's yells, Asuna's spluttering magic, and Kirito's howl of grief, and had been able to do nothing.</p><p>Sugu let her brother be as she carefully stacked the photos and pulled a blanket from the floor up and over Sinon. The girl her age was finally asleep and Sugu was glad, Sinon had been beating herself up over Asuna since it happened, and had been working so hard she hadn't been sleeping. Sugu gently took Sinon's glasses from her face and placed them on the edge of the desk where she lightly touched Klein's shoulder to let him know she was there and went over to Argo.</p><p>Argo's portable table was covered completely in little balls of paper, broken pencils, small notebooks open and closed, and various colors of highlighters. Yet Sugu didn't touch any of the stuff on her table and instead tried to very carefully lift Argo's hands to keep her from waking up. She had learned the hard way Argo was a light sleeper when Sugu had lifted her head to move her keyboard and had Argo had jolted awake. She had knocked her head against Sugu's and started rambling about something about complicated code and idiots who weren't smart enough for web safety and went right back to what she had been working on.</p><p>"Leave her be dude," Klein grunted from his spot next to Kirito and leaned back in his chair for a moment. "You'll wake her up and she'll start saying words that don't make any sense."</p><p>Sugu sighed and carefully dropped Argo's hand, "I know, but I don't think she wants to delete pages of her keys being pressed by her face."</p><p>"Let Argo sleep," Kirito's voice was more of a thick croak, "she hasn't slept in thirty-six hours."</p><p>Sugu blinked and she went tentatively over to her brother, "Kazuto, when was the last time you slept?"</p><p>Kirito didn't respond, not moving from his current position.</p><p>Sugu's heart wrenched painfully when she saw tear droplets appear on the paper beneath Kirito, and wet the paper with his tears.</p><p>"I can't." Kirito eventually said in his croaky voice, "I can't sleep or I see her again. With me, in SAO."</p><p>Sugu carefully put her arms around her brother's shoulders, "if we want to find out what happened you need to sleep."</p><p>"I can't!" Kirito exclaimed and his voice broke when he buried his head further into his hands, "I can't… I can't go to sleep and see Asuna again," his voice was choked as he continued, tears now dripping quickly down onto the desk below his head. "I miss her," he choked out, "so much," he pushed the heels of his palms against his eyes to make the tears stop, his shoulders were trembling hard and he was breathing in jerky breaths.</p><p>Sugu didn't know what to do. Realistically she should pull her brother into a hug and let him cry, but she also knew that he hated crying in front of her and seeming weak. She felt helpless, unable to do anything to help her big brother when he was hurting like this.</p><p>"Kirito?" Sugu turned her head to look at the door where Liz had arrived, balancing a tray with sandwiches and whatever she managed to pull together with her almost nonexistent skill in the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>Liz saw Kirito crying and wanted to cry herself. When would this nightmare be over? She walked into the room, pushed the random stuff off of her half of Argo's table and set down the tray. She then bumped Argo hard enough that the curly haired info broker jolted awake and went over to Kirito, standing next to him.</p><p>"I'ma workin'! I'ma awake and workin'!" Argo floundered, her accent in full force due to her not being awake enough to tune it out just yet.</p><p>Liz ignored Argo's rather loud exclamation as she reacted to being bumped by her and instead leaned over so she could partially see Kirito's face. "Hey," she tried to keep her tone as level and calm as possible, even though her blue eyes were silently welling with tears of her own. "What happened Kirito?" He usually didn't do this, rarely ever did he actually cry in front of them all after he had broken down in game and threw himself at Argo and bawled like a child. Asuna's death hurt them all, it damaged them all in a way that could never be fixed. But for Kirito it killed him, Asuna was dead, gone. It felt like their feat of beating SAO was worth nothing. Not when Asuna was killed by yet another vr game. Killed because she was targeted from someone in their SAO days.</p><p>Kirito's face screwed up even more and he gave a stifled half sob, "I can't…" He said through the half sob, "I can't do it!"</p><p>Liz's eyebrows furrowed, in confusion and in worry. "You can't do what?" She asked, already assuming the answer but asking anyway.</p><p>"I can't sleep and see her again when she's not here!" Kirito exploded and his fists slammed down onto the desk with a major rattle. Tears swam in the Black Swordsman's eyes, "I miss her!" He slammed his fists down again and again, "I want to have Asuna back!" His words were only half understandable, "not reminded of her in my sleep! I want her to be here with me!"</p><p>Kirito's explosion startled Liz and Sugu and Sugu moved away while Liz took a step back and hesitantly reached for his shoulder. "Kirito…"</p><p>Klein looked blankly at Kirito, too sleep deprived and frustrated to be that worried about him.</p><p>"Klein," Argo seemed to have snapped awake after Kirito's shouting and was now standing up, hazel eyes focused on the back of Kirito's head. "Go an' take a shower. You smell worse than a Trembling Ox." Clearly Argo was having some issues switching her speech and analogies, that or she was doing it for Kirito's benefit, sounding like she had back in SAO. When he, Asuna, and Argo had teamed up for a while and when Argo had really become a sibling to the couple. "Sugu, Sinon needs a place to sleep. You and Liz find everyone a place to settle down for the night." She then approached Kirito, "Ya alright Kiri-bou?" She hald crouched, going eye level with him and waiting patiently for him to say something.</p><p>Kirito turned to look at Argo, onyx colored eyes red rimmed from tears and looking lost and confused. "I miss her, Argo."</p><p>Argo's expression softened and she lifted one hand to brush her fingers through Kirito's hair like she and Asuna both used to do. "We all do Kirito, but A-chan would wan' us to find out what's happenin' and stop it. Healin' takes time, some longer than others and ya have to let yer emotions out. It's not healthy."</p><p>Kirito choked a sob, not noticing the others quietly leaving and following Argo's instructions. "I… I couldn't save her again," he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists, "I couldn't save Asuna again… It's my fault."</p><p>Argo perched on the arm rest of his office chair, balancing precariously as she pulled Kirito into a hug. "Asuna…" She couldn't get the words out, she didn't want to say it out loud, she could pretend Asuna was just missing until she said it outloud, but Kirito needed to hear it to. "Asuna," she hesitated again before powering through, "Asuna died to protect Yui an' the other players in the game an' in the real world." She gazed blankly out the window, feeling like her chest was constricting after she had said that. She had finally said Asuna was dead, it she wanted to go hide in a corner and cry too, <em>Asuna's dead…</em> the phrase echoed in her ears, having finally said it aloud. Then she admitted what she had believed since Asuna's death. "And it's my fault, not yers…" She spoke in a low whisper, "I didn't recognize the hack before it was activated and I should've seen through the quest's hoax."</p><p>Kirito stiffened in surprise but Argo didn't notice, her fingers going soothingly through his black hair as she continued. "I'm an information broker and I couldn't even get the info to save Asuna. What a failure I am." She gave a dry chuckle before she hugged Kirito a little closer, pretending it was just for his save. It ain't yer fault Kazuto," she showed her sincerity by using his real name for once, "it's mine and the woman who created tha' darn awful hack." It was a miracle her voice wasn't wavering or breaking from the amount of emotion the girl was feeling at the moment.</p><p>Kirito's arms slid around Argo's back and he buried his face into her shoulder, shoulders shaking. "I can't live without her, Akira…" he said thickly through his tears and didn't notice his slip up of using Argo's real name. <em><strong>(Unofficial, unfortunately. It means "Bright, intelligent, wisdom, or truth. Pronounced (Uh-kee-Rah) )</strong></em></p><p>Argo winced slightly at the usage of her real name, having forgotten that he even knew it, and hugged Kirito like a sister would. "It'll be okay Kazuto," she whispered softly, "I ain't gonna give up till we find out what happened…"</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>"It's been almost four days," a voice broke me from my thoughts and I tore my gaze from the ALheim below me to look over at the owner of the voice. "You have to eat something in game in order for your body to get anything, you know that right?"</p><p>I looked blankly at the teenage girl who I could still hardly believe was right around my age, I didn't really care anymore. It didn't change here, even the girl vanished and came back at almost the same time every single day. "Exactly why do you care?" I asked rather harshly, letting my anger lash out at the girl who seemed untouchable to anything I said.</p><p>The girl then adjusted her glasses, swiped up her menu, and a plate shimmered into existence in her right hand. "Because you'll need your strength." I knew she was trying to help but she was rather annoying with how stoic she always seemed to be, almost like a robot of some kind. I knew her name, she had told me after she had explained where we were, I just usually chose not to address her by it, preferring to just gaze down at the world below my feet yet unreachable.</p><p>"For what?"</p><p>"Do you want to sit here staring at ALheim or actually go down there?" The brown eyed girl rolled her dark brown colored eyes and stood with her arms crossed. She was roughly my height, maybe an inch or two shorter, had freckles scattered everywhere on her face and skin, curly brown hair that fell to her shoulder blades unless put up in it's classic ponytail, a thin runner's build, and she seemed to always have this 'I don't like people' vibe going on.</p><p>Then it registered what she had said and my jaw dropped, "y-you'd take me down there?"</p><p>"If you eat," the girl shrugged, "I have an ALO account too so I can smuggle you in there if you wish to. But only until we are noticed, then we have to leave. Even my magic isn't strong enough to conceal us completely and forever."</p><p>I jumped to me feet and hugged her tightly, hard enough that I heard the air leaving her lungs, "thank you! Thank you so much Caylee!"</p><p>"Welcome…"</p><p>I quickly released her and grasped the plate from her before I looked at her and offered her one of my hands. "I believe I still need to introduce myself right?"</p><p>Caylee rolled her eyes, seemed to instantly recover from my death hug and nodded. "Uh huh."</p><p>I couldn't help the smile spreading on my face, "my name's Asuna Yuuki, SAO survivor."</p><p>Caylee grasped my hand in a soft but firm grip, "Caylee Mitsuko, computer specialist." Oddly enough Caylee's hands were cool, like she wasn't half as warm as I was, which was odd.</p><p>My eyes turned a little puzzled, <em>who is she really?</em></p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Whispers filled my ears as I walked away from the school, whispers likely about me and about the whole SAO incident. After a year I could've thought people were smart enough to get over it, but after what I witnessed on a day to day basis I guessed they weren't comfortable with a 'computer nerd' and death game survivor going to their school. I pushed my glasses further up my nose and continued to walk. I could care less about what people thought of me by now, it wasn't like I was like the rest of them. I wasn't a rich kid, I was a middle class girl with an actual brain and who could actually use it. For the most part I stayed to myself, preferring to find my ride straight away than go off and chat with the other girls in my class or be bothered by the guys.</p><p>In SAO I had been one of the silent players, not weak but also not in full view of everyone. In fact, while Argo got the nickname 'the Rat' I was called 'the Hacker' or 'the AI' because some people had believed that in the game I was an AI and not a player. I wasn't one of the ones on the front lines, I had been one of the info brokers in a way. I worked with Argo to fill her field guides to the brim with any and all of the information I could find, hack, and force out of Cardinal. So people rarely saw me, never saw my expression really change, and rarely heard me say anything. Argo was pretty much the only one who had really heard me speak more than this sentence 'visit Argo, she has the information you're looking for.' Argo and Liz were childhood friends of mine, I knew them both pretty well up till the SAO incident and after I knew them better than myself.</p><p>"Caylee!"</p><p>My half blank gaze flickered over to the voice and my eyebrows raised in surprise. Klein, Liz, Silica, and Sugu were standing there near Argo who was sitting on her motorbike and looked rather moody at the moment. I already knew why, Asuna was dead. Or supposedly to them she was anyway. And I had to let them believe that till I could fix it, till I got Asuna out of my uncle's lab. I had met all of them through Argo and Kirito when a year ago Argo had practically dragged me from my school to hack into ALO and look for a player name 'Asuna' to confirm she was there.</p><p>With a sigh that showed my rather fake disinterest and caused a cloud of cold air to briefly obscure my vision, I started to walk toward them. "Klein, Liz, Sugu, Silica," I greeted with a remaining flat tone, controlling my tone to avoid any questions I didn't want to answer. "Usually Argo's the only one to pick me up, what's wrong."</p><p>Liz crossed her arms, "you know very well what's wrong Caylee, you were there!"</p><p>I looked blankly at her, "I wasn't there in ALO that day. If I had I would've killed the hack before it did any damage."</p><p>
  <em>Smack!</em>
</p><p>My back hit the metal gate of my school's yard and pain shot up my spine and back. I kept my expression neutral beyond the faint twitching of my eyebrows and looked flatly at the man holding me against the gate with a bandana in his red hair. "Kindly put me down."</p><p>Instead Klein lifted me up, his fists balled around the fabric of my dark blue coat, till my toes barely brushed the ground. "Why didn't you stop it?!"</p><p>I could see everyone else's shock at Klein's actions, especially when I was a girl, but none of them bothered to help me. Like they wanted the answer to. Only Argo looked down at her bike, looking to be lost and torn in what she should say and or do. "Because unlike what you believe I am not your personal hacker," I responded in a cool tone and let Klein do what he wanted. My breathing was beginning to get constricted from my own medical problems, but at the moment I couldn't care. If this was what he needed, a literal punching bag, then I could be one for him. I knew Asuna wasn't dead, so I could act and pretend I didn't care all I wanted when I already knew the truth but couldn't tell them.</p><p>I saw Klein's teeth grind together and tensed up to take Klein's punch after what I said next. "I had a job to to outside of the game despite the hack, I was aware of it but didn't do anything." Now that was a fat lie. In reality I had been there irl with Asuna during the fatal hack and barely managed to kick the thug's pathetic excuse of a butt without getting myself killed in the process. But I had been in the middle of clearing and deleting the hack before the fight and my laptop had been smashed to pieces and stained with blood after it.</p><p>
  <em>Crunch.</em>
</p><p>I could taste blood now, from the punch to the mouth I was just given. Instead of spitting out the blood now pooling in my mouth I forced a half smirk, "it's my fault." For that smart alex comment I got another punch. Now my mouth and jaw were aching along with my split lip and the blood pooling inside my mouth.</p><p>"Klein!" Sugu gasped, and I could see Liz pull Silica around to protect her from what Klein was doing.</p><p>Lifting my chin into a more arrogant position, I spoke again. "I didn't bother to stop the hack-" this time I was cut off by Klein putting me down and socking me in the stomach. I could see the tears in his eyes and let him punch me again, this time between the shouldblades when I bent over my stomach to protect myself in a half hearted fashion.</p><p>"That's enough!" Argo, her small figure stepped between me and Klein, and from her voice I could tell she was angry, but her anger was dulled by grief, loss, and upset.</p><p>"It's her fault!" Klein spat at Argo and balled his fists, "it's that cheater's fault!"</p><p>I remained on one knee, feeling my already messed up spin now aching rather badly to the point where I wanted to go home take a medication and sleep for a day. "Feel better?" I asked Klein and spit out a mouthful of blood, the crimson liquid now glistening on the frosty sidewalk. I lifted my head to look at him, keeping one of my eyes shut as a way to balance my pain levels. I didn't regret letting Klein get his anger out, I just wished my body was a little stronger.</p><p>When Klein just stared at me in shock, I explained and let Argo help me up into a hunched standing position. "I knew you wanted someone to blame, so why not blame the hacker capable of deleting the hack?" I spoke, my voice was a little raspy after the hits to the face. "Now I know you don't usually hit girls, but hey. I'm probably one of the only hackers you know not counting computer nerds Argo and Kirito. So I let you hit me. Feel any better?"</p><p>"W-What?" Klein asked with a confused expression while Argo helped me by pulling one of my arms over her slim shoulders.</p><p>"I gave you an outlet," I explained and spit out more blood, "you wanted someone to blame and rage at so I gave you one. Now, for the question you were all going to ask me," I straightened up and winced when fresh bouts of pain shot up my spine. "What did you need?"</p><p>Liz cleared her throat and stepped forward, Silicar peering cautiously at me and Klein. "We wanted your help on finding out how to stop the hack in ALO."</p><p>I lifted one hand and wiped the blood from my stinging split lip, "I already stopped it. That's why you can't find any traces of the program," I secretly enjoyed the look of shock of their faces. "I'm already working on finding the person responsible and tracking down the security camera footage of the hospital." Now that bit I couldn't give them, not till I figured out how to get Asuna and Kirito to meet without setting off any alarms.</p><p>"Oh," Liz said and I saw her blink in surprise. "To be honest I thought we were going to have to bribe you."</p><p>I tried to smile but decided not to at the last minute, "normally you would with a video game or some kind of chocolate, but this is for a friend. It's for Kirito, to help him find closure." <em>Closure, something they all want. When in reality Asuna's still here, just hidden in a lab in an area I don't have access to.</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is one of the first stories I introducted my OC Caylee in actually Xd</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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